Donald Trump Is Just Another N.R.A. Patsy, but He Can’t Stop the “Never Again” Movement

President Trump’s independent-thinking bravado after the Parkland shooting lasted only a few hours, but Washington isn’t the only place where Americans are demanding action.

Photograph by Jim Watson / AFP / Getty

On March 1st, two weeks after the gun massacre at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, Donald Trump told a
bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House that he favored
“comprehensive” gun-control legislation, which would include raising the
legal age for purchasing assault-style weapons, closing the loopholes in
the background-check system, and making it easier for police to obtain
court orders to confiscate firearms owned by people with mental
problems. Trump even expressed interest in a bill sponsored by Senator
Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, that would ban assault weapons, and he
vowed to stand up to the National Rife Association,
telling the assembled members of Congress, “They have great power
over you people, but they have less power over me.”

Trump’s bravado lasted for a few hours. Later the very same day, he and
Vice-President Mike Pence met with Chris Cox, the executive director of
the N.R.A.’s lobbying arm, who
tweeted immediately afterward, “POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment,
support strong due process and don’t want gun control.” The White House
has now confirmed that Cox was correct.

On Sunday, Administration officials
said that the President was dropping his call for raising the age requirement
for gun purchases. They also indicated that Trump has withdrawn his
endorsement—issued at the March 1st meeting—for a Senate bill that would
extend background-check requirements for online gun purchases. (The
White House will continue to support a weaker background-check bill
sponsored by Senator John Cornyn, a Republican, and Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat.) And, rather than pushing for some immediate
legislation, the White House announced that it was setting up a federal
commission—a classic stalling tactic—to be headed up by Betsy DeVos, the
Secretary of Education, who
told CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” on Sunday night, that she sees merit in Trump’s
crackpot idea of arming teachers.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump tried to put a positive spin on
his retreat,
saying,
“Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be
fully backed by White House.” In another tweet, he
said,
“On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before
acting.”

For anyone who has followed the gun-control non-debate in Washington
over the past two decades, and has observed Trump’s fourteen-month
tenure in the White House, this outcome was sadly predictable. The
N.R.A.’s hold over Congress, and particularly the Republican Party, is a
textbook case of political capture. If a G.O.P.-controlled Congress
refused to do anything in 2013, after twenty first graders were shot in
Newtown, Connecticut, why, in 2018, would a G.O.P.-controlled
Congress act any differently in response to the Parkland massacre?

At the White House meeting, a number of lawmakers suggested to Trump
that he alone had the credibility with gun owners to make something
significant happen. That turned out to be wishful thinking. It has long
been clear that Trump doesn’t necessarily speak for the Trump
Administration on policy matters. In some instances, he doesn’t even
speak for himself—or, rather, for the future self that emerges after Cox
or others have reminded him about the rules of Republican politics.

With the tariffs on aluminum and steel that the President announced last
week being practically the sole exception, the Trump Administration has
governed in accordance with G.O.P. orthodoxy. On taxes, judges, energy
and environmental policy, banking regulation, and now guns, the big
Republican interest groups and donor groups have had their way, and
Trump has gone along with them. Although he likes to portray himself as
a political outsider who isn’t beholden to anybody, he’s really a patsy.

If that were all there was to report, it would be too depressing to
contemplate: business as usual in a failing democracy. However,
Washington isn’t the only place where Americans are demanding action. In
Florida, last Friday, Governor Rick Scott, a Republican,
signed into law a bill that will raise the legal age for purchases of long guns
to twenty-one and impose a three-day waiting period on some gun
purchases. This was the first time in thirty years that Florida had
passed any gun restrictions, and it was a direct response to the Never
Again movement, which was founded by students from Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School.

To be sure, the Florida bill stopped well short of restoring the Clinton
Administration’s ban on assault weapons, which is what the students have
demanded. And, in a concession to the N.R.A. and Trump, the measure
established a program for arming teachers and other school personnel in
areas where local authorities approve of this step. But, for all the
Florida bill’s shortcomings, its passage did prove that popular
engagement can still have an effect, even in an N.R.A. stronghold such
as Florida.

Like many of the G.O.P. politicians who control the state legislature in
Tallahassee, Scott is a longtime shill for the gun lobby. In 2014, the
N.R.A. said that he had “signed more pro-gun bills into law—in one term—than
any other Governor in Florida history.” Last year, he appeared at the
N.R.A.’s national convention and reaffirmed his support for the group’s
twisted reading of the Second Amendment. In short, Scott is a wretched
specimen. But he’s also considering a bid for the U.S. Senate later this
year. When he saw the outrage among Floridians after the Parkland
shooting, which was articulated and converted into demands for action by
the classmates of the dead, he knew that he had to do something, even if
it irked the N.R.A.

After Scott signed the bill, a parent of one of the victims, Tony
Montalto, issued a statement saying that the measure was just “the
beginning of the journey” to prevent more school massacres. Further
progress will require sustained engagement and activism throughout the
country, beginning with widespread participation in the National School
Walkout,
this Wednesday, and the March for Our Lives demonstration, in
Washington, D.C., on March 24th.

Over the weekend, some of the Never Again leaders appealed to businesses
across America to sponsor local schools, and purchase flights or bus
rides, so that more people can get to Washington for the march. “For
this to really be Never Again, we all have to stand together,” Cameron
Kasky, one of the group’s leaders,
said in a public statement that he and seventeen others signed. “Students,
businesses, survivors, elected officials, leaders . . . we invite everyone
to participate in our movement, even if you don’t agree with everything
we say.”

A President who was serious about tackling the gun plague would have
embraced the Parkland students and joined with them to exert pressure on
Congress. Not this President: he never fails to disappoint. That,
however, is no reason to give up the fight, and, thankfully, the
Parkland students have no intention of doing so.

Under the southern portion of the city exists its negative image: a network of more than two hundred miles of galleries, rooms, and chambers.

As the years passed, Tom grew more entrenched in his homelessness. He was absorbed in lofty fantasies and private missions, aware of the basest necessities and the most transcendent abstractions, and almost nothing in between.